Category: Education

Cerebral palsy is the most common physical disability among children, with about two per 1000 live-born infants being diagnosed with the disorder. In most children with cerebral palsy, the disability is caused by damage to the immature brain during pregnancy or birth that results in problems with movement.

Denmark and Norway have low income inequality and free access to education and offer high-quality antenatal care to pregnant women free of charge. Nevertheless, in our study recently published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, we found that the risk of having a child with cerebral palsy in these two countries varies by the parents’ educational level, and this educational gradient has been surprisingly stable over time.

Our study, recently published in the IJE, shows that youths who initiate cannabis use before the age of 17 years are 60% less likely to pursue higher education than those who never used cannabis. An original aspect of our study, which was based on data from the longitudinal TEMPO cohort in France, is that we were able to take into account youths’ psychological and school difficulties in childhood and adolescence, as well as their parents’ characteristics.

In recent decades, cannabis use has become frequent among youths growing up in Europe, North America and Australasia. The potential health effects of cannabis use include reductions in memory and concentration. Because the brain is thought to develop until the age of 25, adolescent substance use could have lasting negative effects on executive functions, which can in turn result in school difficulties and low educational achievement.